Eliminate country-specific limits on employment-based immigration visas, which have previously caused huge backlogs for petitioners from large countries, such as India and China;

Exempt from annual immigration visa caps certain “highly skilled” and “very talented” immigrants, including immigrants of ”extraordinary ability,” multi-national executives, graduates of U.S. universities with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (so-called “STEM” fields), and physicians who fill special medical needs or who work in medically underserved areas;

Exempt all STEM applicants from the usual labor certification requirements; and

One issue of contention between supporters and opponents of the proposed immigration reform that passed the Senate earlier this year is whether the new law would facilitate or hinder job creation in the United States.

Supporters of immigration reform are pointing to a recent analysis conducted by a conservative think-tank, which suggests that passage of the bipartisan immigration reform legislation would add an average of nearly 14,000 jobs per House district, with no district gaining fewer than 7,000 jobs.

Other experts attribute the potential increase in jobs to the increase in the number of H1-B visas for foreign skilled workers from 65,000 to 110,000 under the proposed legislation. Although some fear that the increase in H1-B visas would take away jobs from U.S. citizens, experts point out that the additional H1-B visas would simply be filling the current gap in the workforce with high-tech industries, such as information technology, software, and biotechnology.

Data shows that the U.S. currently has relatively few college graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). According to this article, computing and information science, engineering and technology, and science and mathematics account for only 2.8%, 5.9% and 7.5% of bachelor degrees, respectively, which leaves the other 83.6% as non-STEM degrees.

Moreover, Congressional testimony revealed that the U.S. produces only 51,000 computer science jobs – far fewer than the 122,000 openings within the industry. Not only does the lack of a U.S. labor force in these fields result in unfulfilled or inadequately filled jobs, but it also results in U.S. investments going overseas.

DISCLAIMER: Because of the generality of this update, the information provided herein may not be applicable in all situations and should not be acted upon without specific legal advice based on particular situations.

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